U.K.’s Exeter Airport Is a Bet on Rebound, New Owner Rigby Says

By Robert Wall -
Jun 26, 2013

Exeter airport in southwest England
-- a sparsely populated area with an economy based largely on
tourism -- is attractive as a bet on a rebound in U.K. growth,
according to the base’s new owner Rigby Group Plc.

Rigby acquired Exeter from Balfour Beatty Plc (BBY), Britain’s
largest construction company, which bought the asset for 60
million pounds ($92 million) in 2007, months before the credit
crunch that prefaced the global recession. The builder wrote
down its investment to zero last August.

“I see it as a business that has huge potential,” Peter Rigby, the Birmingham, England-based company’s chairman, said in
an interview following the deal for an undisclosed sum. Rigby
also owns cargo-oriented Coventry airport in central England.

Exeter’s passenger numbers, which have slipped below 1
million with sagging U.K. growth, should recover as the economy
rebounds, and the airport is profitable even now, Rigby said.
While the site is home to Flybe Group Plc (FLYB), it’s served by only
about 10 percent of routes at Europe’s top regional airline.

Rigby Group acquired British International Helicopters
earlier this to bolster the Patriot Aerospace business, and its
chairman said there is further scope for takeovers.

“We see this not as the final move in airports,” he said.
“There will be others. There are plenty out there.” Options
could include expanding airport activities overseas, with
management contracts generally preferable to purchases, he said.

Helicopter operations will also be extended, with growth
opportunities in Asia, where contracts with oil, gas and wind-farm companies may not require acquisitions, he said.

Formed in 1975, Rigby Group is the parent for a portfolio
of companies active in property, hotels and technology, as well
as aviation. The Specialist Computer Centres business, or SCC,
is Europe’s largest independent IT group with annual sales of
more than 2.5 billion pounds, according to its website.